National pantheon in Kraków delayed

The pantheon, which is being created beneath the early 17th century Church of St Peter and St Paul, had been due to open in its entirety in 2016.

However, Professor Franciszek Ziejka, former rector of the Jagiellonian University and chairman of the foundation, has said that it will not open until 2017 at the earliest.

Ziejka has likewise revealed that plans have been significantly cut back.

A pavilion with an educational and conference centre will not now be built in a courtyard within the church complex.

"We have decided to limit ourselves to what is most important,” the professor said in an interview with the Dziennik Polski daily.

Work so far has cost PLN 10 million, according to Ziejka, with the lion's share coming from private sponsors (the rest was provided by the Office of the Chairman of the Małopolska province, the Social Committee for Restoration of Monuments of Kraków, the city of Krakow and the Ministry of Culture.)

About PLN 1.5 million – 2 million is needed for work planned for 2016, although Ziejka admits that those funds have yet to be raised.

The site continues the tradition of the riverside 'Church on the Rock', which no longer has space for further entombments in its 'Crypt of Honour', a situation echoed at Kraków's Wawel Cathedral, where many Polish monarchs and national heroes have been laid to rest.

The new pantheon is intended to be for luminaries in the arts and sciences, and the space has been deconsecrated, allowing for the entombment of atheists and members of non-Catholic religious denominations.

The pantheon was symbolically inaugurated in September 2012, and the first and only person to be laid to rest there since then was writer Sławomir Mrożek in 2013. (nh/rk)